


Protocol: Spidey Out

by sarcasmismyweapon



Series: Equilibrium [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Cute, Fluff, Funny, Gen, Hurt Peter, Hurt/Comfort, Iron Man Suit - Freeform, Sarcasm, Science Nerds, Tony has a long list of protocols, Worried Tony Stark, lab experiments gone wrong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-07 14:50:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20819123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcasmismyweapon/pseuds/sarcasmismyweapon
Summary: Working in Tony's lab is fun, exciting and yeah it comes with a certain amount of risk, but Tony and Peter are superheroes so it shouldn't be anything they can't handle...That is until Peter's Spidey senses take offense.Can be read as a stand-alone fic but part of a wider series.Follows Five years too many, Climbing the walls.





	Protocol: Spidey Out

**Author's Note:**

> This is a follow up to the previous one-shot of mine that branches off of the main story Five years too many. So go read those two, I mean this can be read as a standalone fic but it's better if you understand things XD. 
> 
> As for those who are following the larger story, I just couldn't help myself from writing how Tony would react to Peter's Spidey senses going haywire.

They’d been working for a few hours that afternoon, Mr. Stark wanting to solidify his prototype for an energy displacement shield. Peter was still in awe of some of the things that Mr. Stark thought up, let alone knew how to build. Granted, this one was still a work in progress and there was a ton of bugs they had come across, but it was still worlds above what Peter could do on his own. The teen had been more than happy to be at his mentor’s side to help the man with whatever he might need to finish the prototype, that is until it had a meltdown of epic proportions. Mr. Stark was never overly bothered by things being destroyed or failing to work as he predicted them to do, he found too much pleasure in fixing things. Unfortunately for Peter, this was one of those times where it would have been better for things to have worked from the get-go. 

The shield didn’t just disappear in a flickering of light energy as it should have if it failed like all the previous versions. No, this one felt the need to shoot out the excess energy in a bright flash of light that had both men ducking to avoid the laser-focused energy it expressed. The snap’s and pops of various things coming into contact with the concentrated energy was only superseded by the heady whine the device itself was making. 

Peter uselessly covered his ears as if the small barrier of his fingers would actually be enough to drive the piercing noise from his eardrums. It wasn’t. The teen fell over from where he’d been knelt down when he’d ducked to avoid one of the energy beams being broadcasted by the broken shield prototype. Clutching his head with a deep grimace of pain, Peter’s ears auto-focused on Mr. Stark’s creative cursing, no doubt his mentor was trying to fix things but at the moment Peter couldn’t be of any help. Curling around himself, grinding his teeth as his head throbbed with the noise, the shiver of his overwhelmed brain sending signals of danger down his spine making him shiver. Peter groaned, his fingers clutching his head tighter, his fingernails biting into his scalp as he struggled to get away from the noise that was hurting him. 

Tony cursed up a storm as he struggled to get the stupid prototype to stop broadcasting the shrill noise, the grating sound of the metal workbench it was slowly warping was all the worse. That thing was expensive and now it was being reduced to a tin can, thankfully, Friday was a smart girl and it didn’t take long for the entire lab to suddenly go dark as he shouted out.

“Friday!” No more need be said and the power to the lab was down, and thus the power supply to the faulty prototype cut off. Tony sighed in relief when the horrible noise of the device and the melting of his table stopped at once. Shaking his head to try and get rid of the ringing in his own ears, Tony muttered. “Alright, so now we know that the green wire doesn’t go there.” He joked, half expecting some wry comment from Peter. He got nothing which swiftly had Tony twisting about to locate the teen as Peter wasn’t really one to hold back his own quips when a situation arose that garnered it. Tony froze, his back going straight when he saw Peter curled up against the far wall with his arm wrapped around his head.

“Shit!” Tony scrabbled across the lab floor, sliding to a stop in front of Peter. “Kid? Hey, Pete” The mechanic uselessly waved his hands about as if he could signal down the kid regardless of his eyes being screwed shut. Biting his lip, unsure what to do for the teen who wasn’t responding to him Tony reached out and touched the kid’s arm. Big mistake. Tony dived back when Peter threw out a hand startling him only to cause his own eyes to widen when the boy's fist hit the wall and cracked it. Right, superstrength.

“Alright...Alright, so...Not doing that.” Tony nodded as he managed to get to his feet, he stared down at the curled up figure once more and shook his head. "Crap...What do I do?" He was supposed to be a genius and he had no idea how to help Peter, the noise was gone and the lab was quiet so theoretically, things should get better...Right? At least that’s what Peter had told him, and sure he’d been working on some stuff to hopefully reduce the likelihood of stuff like this happening again but Tony hadn’t really thought it would be needed quite so soon. And just like that, a thought occurred, Peter had already given him the answer to the problem...Granted not right now, but previously.

“Karen.” Tony snapped his fingers, grimacing when he saw Peter tense. “Sorry.” He lowered his voice in apology as he ran towards where he last saw the kid put his bag. Chances are the kid brought his suit with him and the mask was something that Peter had already assured him worked. How he was going to manage to get it onto Peter’s head was something to worry about in the very near future, for now, he just had to find it. Tony ripped the zipper off the kid's bag in his haste, already reminding himself to buy Peter a new bag, not only because he broke this one but because May hated how many backpacks the kid went through. Shaking his head at his disjointed thoughts, Tony upended the bag itself only to groan.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me, the one time you show up without your suit.” Tony sent a look back towards Peter, only to curse again when he saw the teen had managed to cram himself into an even smaller space than before. 

Tony was quickly back to his feet and making his way towards the downed teen, he had no idea what he was going to do but he had to do something. He made it all of two steps before the lights came back on.

“Power has been restored, central power grid to lab table three has been cut off to prevent further damage.”

Great. Awesome job, but bad timing. Tony grimaced as Peter cried out as the lights came back on in a bright flash of illuminating bulbs.

“Son of a-” Tony looked around, he had to find something to help the kid fix his head. “Friday dim the lights, cut any machines off!” Tony raced over to find a pair of headphones, at the very least they might help. Peter had said they did something and the heavy-duty ones he used for metalwork were better than some shotty earbuds. It was as his hands curled around the well-used headphones that the mechanic’s eyes caught sight of something. Tony didn’t think twice, the headphones falling to clatter on the floor when Tony abandoned them for something better.

Peter lashed out when something touched his already oversensitized body, the thud and sting of his hand hitting something hard startled him for only a moment before his head was shoved down as something was forced over it. Peter jerked back, afraid, already keyed up by his senses before his head was being confined. Peter’s eyes jerked open for a split second before slamming shut again as things were moving too fast. His hands came up to pull away at whatever had been shoved over his head but were snatched up before he could hope to do anything to free himself. Seconds away from kicking out at the offender attacking him as his spine drew taut Peter froze.

“Hey-Hey, you’re alright. Friday initialize, sync up and cut the music.”

“Syncing now.”

Peter yelped when a sudden noise reached his ears before everything went utterly silent. The teen opened his eyes confused as to how the world around him was so blissfully silent, they widened and flitted about at what they saw. Mr. Stark was kneeling down in front of him, wearing an Iron-man suit...Most of it. The man’s iron-clad hands held a hold of his own, preventing the super strengthened teen from hurting the man or stopping what had been the genius’ plan all along. Peter swallowed tensely, taking in the worried look on his mentor’s face all at the same time as he uttered.

“This isn’t my mask.”

Tony hung his head in relief, giving a small chuckle as he canted it back up to smile at the teen. “No, no it is not. You don’t get to keep that by the way.” He grinned as he released Peter’s hands now that the teen was aware of his surroundings and just who he had been fighting with. “Is it helping?”

Peter nodded his head, everything was dulled down, so quiet to his oversensitized ears. The HUD was startling familiar though it had a few different components that Peter found himself curious about. None of that mattered at the moment though, what really mattered was the fact that he was currently wearing one of Mr. Stark’s Iron-man helmets. “You put your suit on me.”

Tony huffed. “No, I put the helmet on you.” He clarified before pointing out. “I had to wear the rest of it to protect myself from long-legged teens who wanted to kick and punch.”

Peter blushed, inwardly ashamed of how he’d reacted toward the man even if it hadn’t quite been his own fault. Stupid brain. “Sorry.”

Tony shook his head, he didn’t want Peter to feel bad for overreacting, then again he probably wasn’t given how different he was to the normal person. “Forget it, so long as it’s helping.”

Peter nodded. “It’s so much quieter.”

“Good, I had Friday turn down the lights, but if you need them off altogether we can do that.” Tony was seconds away from just ordering the AI to do that when Peter shook his head. “You’re sure.”

“Yeah.” Peter took a deep breath, letting out in a slow manner as he gazed about the lab. Everything was being introduced to his brain through the same filter like quality that his own mask gave him. His brain was still in high gear but the distortion or rather insulation that the helmet provided him was doing wonders for him. Peter smiled to himself, looking back towards Mr. Stark, Peter thanked him. “This is a lot better...Thanks, Mr. Stark.”

Nodding Tony reached out and patted the top of the helmet. “Right...Well, you just stay in that...I’m gonna get out of this providing that you’re not going to go all awol on me again.” The tilt in the man’s voice was of amusement, but the teen was quick to reassure Tony.

“I won’t.”

Nodding Tony got to his feet and retreated towards the small section of the lab which would allow Friday to disassembled his suit. The short process was enough to see Peter climbing to his own feet and the pair met each other at the destroyed work station. Peter, still clad in the iron-man helmet made a surprised noise. “Your suit looks for radiation?”

Tony gave a huff of amusement, giving the teen a smirk. “My suit does a lot of things.” Pointing at the destroyed prototype, Tony questioned. “Is it radioactive?” He wondered.

Peter snorted. “No...Says it’s hot though.”

Tony smirked, he reached out and didn’t have to get very close before he felt the heat coming off of the still glowing metal. “Checks out.” Twisting to smile at the masked teen, Tony shrugged. “Guess this prototype wasn’t the winner.”

Peter shook his head. “It melted a desk...I think it’s worse than the last one.”

“I think you just might be right about that.” Tony snorted as he looked at the table that would have to be replaced. Shaking his head at the loss, Tony glanced back at his intern and hummed.

Peter looked away from the glowing results on the HUD, twisting his head towards Mr. Stark and smirking when the mask focused on the man himself. Already giving him readouts like the man’s heartbeat, temperature, and apparent threat level. Peter snickered only to shake his head when Mr. Stark raised a brow at him.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing.”

Tony rolled his eyes, he wasn’t buying that but he also couldn’t really interrogate the kid when he couldn’t see his facial expressions. “Alright wise guy, let’s you and me have a chat. Friday, you come along too.” As if he needed to say such a thing, drawing Peter away from the destroyed table Tony forced the teen to come sit on one of the couches he had sprawled around the lab space. Sitting down opposite of the kid, Tony remarked. “You realize that only a handful of people have ever gotten to wear one of those.”

Peter nodded his head, he was well aware of that. Mr. Stark didn’t go around handing out suits, let alone invite people to try one on. Peter’s own suit was special, not only because it belonged to Peter, but because it was something that Mr. Stark had designed with the singular purpose of protecting Peter. 

“Doesn’t look bad per se, but I gotta say I think yours is a better look for you.”

Peter gave a small laugh. “Yeah...Probably.”

“Where is it? I...Might have destroyed your bag looking for it.” Tony reached up to rub the back of his head, sending a glance back towards where he had discarded the kid's belongings.

Peter grimaced at the thought of what Mr. Stark had done in his efforts to help him, he’d left his suit at home since he’d promised not to patrol that night. He was supposed to have a normal day and here he was down a backpack regardless, May was going to have a fit.

“I’m buying you a new one, so don’t make that face.”

Peter canted his head to the side. “What face? You can’t even see me.”

Tony gave the kid a scrutinizing look. “I know you’re making it and don’t think I don’t know what face you make when you think you’re in trouble. It’s a very obvious face.”

Peter huffed, that was rather insulting.

Tony waved a hand at the teen, ignoring the obvious pouting that Peter was leveraging towards him. “So...That was bad.”

Peter sighed, he could hear how the sound was transferred through the mask and as cool as it was to know that Mr. Stark knew he was sighing it was also apparent that Mr. Stark agreed with the sentiment.

“Right.” Tony nodded his head, there was no point talking about how much the last few minutes had sucked for the kid, and for him. Taking a breath, Tony called out proactively. “Friday, be the helpful thing you are and download the specs of the current settings inside the helmet for me.”

“Downloading now.”

“Woah.” Peter looked around despite the HUD in the helmet moving with him.

Tony chuckled as he watched the teen react to what he’d done. “Hold still, she’s just taking a peek at what works with that brain of yours.”

“Huh?” Peter stared back at Mr. Stark in confusion. “What works? What do you mean by that?”

“The settings the helmet instituted to make sure your brain didn’t melt,” Tony smirked. “Friday’s accessing those so I have a ballpark on what to use around here.” Waving his hand to the lab in general, Tony reminded the teen. “I did say that I would figure something out and...Today was a good indicator of me needing to up the urgency of that little project.” Truth be told Tony was ashamed of himself for having let that slide by, now that he’d seen for himself just how bad things got for the kid...Well, it was going to be a top priority of his to make sure it didn’t happen again.

“Oh...I’m okay Mr. Stark, you don’t need to go to all that trouble I-”

Tony pointed a sharp finger at the teen, watching as he flinched a bit at the sudden gesture. “No, see if you were fine you wouldn’t require one of my helmets being crammed over your head.”

Peter sighed, the man had a point.

“So, I’m going to fix that, because that’s what I’m good at, fixing things and all that jazz.” Tony slouched back in his seat, a smirk on his face as he added. “And you’re going to sit in that multi-million dollar helmet and do your homework.”

Peter made a startled noise. “You want me to do my homework in this?”

Tony shrugged. “Is your brain not going to melt if you take it off?” He challenged. 

Peter bit his lip, he wasn’t sure about that. His spine was still taught and the hairs on the back of his neck were still on end.

“So that would be a no.” Tony nodded when the teen didn't provide an answer. “Go do your homework while I decrypt that noggin of yours.”

Peter huffed as the cool dismissal, leaving the couch to go in search of his discarded school supplies. He found them in the general area of where he’d last left his backpack. Sure enough, Mr. Stark had torn the thing apart, Peter shook his head at all the trouble he’d caused. Gathering up his school supplies, the teen brought them back to the couch and settled there to start working on his math homework. Peter blinked a few times when the HUD suddenly changed as he looked at one of the math problems, smirking Peter looked up to find Mr. Stark already leaning over a new workstation and poking at whatever results Friday had downloaded from the helmet he was wearing.

“Um...Mr. Stark?”

“Hmm?” Tony twisted his head back towards the teen, watching as Peter held up his math book.

“It’s kinda giving me the answers.”

Tony blinked a few times as his own head computed that, he smirked and then shrugged. “Stop cheating.”

“Wha-Mr. Stark! It’s showing me the answers, I didn’t ask-”

Tony grinned as he turned back towards his own work. “Think of it as a good way to avoid distractions when you’re out being a friendly neighborhood spider.” The groan he heard from the teen, made Tony feel a bit better for having caused the teen's meltdown to begin with.

“Is it going to do this with my other books too?” The teen called out in a worried tone of voice.

Tony didn’t bat an eye. “Probably...Better not see any signs of plagiarism on that homework Parker, I hate to be forced to explain to your teachers how you copied answers from a multi-million dollar helmet.”

The teen groaned in reply.

********

Peter was happy to have managed to escape Happy’s clutches, the man had been on a wild streak of complaints against traffic and how it was stupid for Peter to continue needing his assistance getting to Mr. Stark when he could just ‘swing around town.’ Shaking his head as he came into the lab, a smile dawned on his face when Peter caught sight of the iron-man helmet that he’d worn just a week ago. 

Peter hadn’t thought too much about that day in the lab, it had happened a week ago after all and he'd had so much to deal with since then. The opportunity to be in one of the iron-man helmets for a few hours had been fun, even if the circumstances had sucked. Peter was grateful for Mr. Stark allowing him the use of one of them until his brain calmed down, and sure he’d been forced to endure some of the man’s teasing along the way but Peter was really used to that by now. 

The fact he had to studiously avoid looking at the HUD as it tried to give him answers when he worked on his homework had kinda sucked, but Peter did his best not to complain because he knew how much Mr. Stark found the whole situation amusing. This was proven when the man decided it was his duty to go over Peter’s homework to ensure that it was ‘legit’. Peter had managed to pass that particular test and had been able to go home with little more said about his brains apparent failure at sorting out what was and wasn’t a threat. 

Now, all this time having past Peter found himself drawn out of his own inner thoughts by Mr. Stark startling him with a loud clap. The teen’s head rounded at once towards the noise only to smile when Mr. Stark greeted him.

“Aw, the prodigal spider returns.”

Snorting, Peter muttered. “I’m the only spider.”

Tony hummed, that wasn't strictly true but Peter hadn't met Natasha so it was best to play along. “True.” The genius agreed. “But you’re also my intern, you’re learning so much from me, I think it fits.”

Peter just smiled, not bothering to get into an argument about the proper term for whatever their relationship was. Chances were that Mr. Stark wouldn’t change his mind even if Peter gave a decent argument. 

“I have something to show you.” Tony rallied in excitement, dragging Peter by the shoulders further into the lab.

“Wha-” Peter stumbled to follow along as he was pushed forward by the man’s grasp on him. They came to a halt at the center of the room, Mr. Stark releasing Peter to come around and stand in front of him.

“Alright. You ready?”

Peter gave a nod, confused but still excited to know what had Mr. Stark excited. 

Tony gave a beaming look at the teen, and then called out. “Friday use protocol: Spidey out.”

“Initializing protocol.”

Peter jumped when the lights suddenly dimmed, the room itself quieting. He glanced about to find that all the equipment in the room had suddenly gone quiet, most of it having actually been shut off completely. Looking up provided the proof that the lighting in the room had been cut in half, maybe more. Peter glanced back at Mr. Stark in surprise. “You did this?”

Tony smirked. “Got your own setup, anytime that brain of yours has a meltdown we won’t have to cram your noggin into one of my helmets anymore. Friday knows the drill.”

Peter nodded along, surprised to know that Mr. Stark had actually used whatever data Friday had gained from his time in Mr. Stark’s helmet. And then he latched onto what Mr. Stark had called this new invention. “Wait...Spidey out?”

Tony beamed. “Well, I have to make sure we don’t confuse it with any of the other things I have going on around here.”

Peter pursed his lips.

“And you are the only spider.”

The teen sighed at his mentor’s play on their earlier conversation. “Thanks,” Peter smirked at Mr. Stark. “This is pretty cool.”

Tony gave a nod, glancing about. “Thought it would come in handy...You know, in case our next project decides to rebel against its creators like the last one did.”

“That’s probably smart.”

“I thought so.” Tony clapped his hands once more. “Alright, Friday that’s enough of that, his brains obviously not melting so turn the lights back on and let’s get to work!”

The lights brightened once more, the machines in the lab firing up seemingly on their own accord. Peter looked about, smiling as he watched things come back to order.

“So...What do you think would happen if we cut the black wire?”

Peter smiled at the playful grin on his mentor’s face, shrugging Peter responded. “Only one way to find out.”

“That’s why you’re my favorite intern.” Tony boasted as he went to grab some wire cutters, he steadfastly ignored the muttered. ‘I’m your only intern’ choosing instead to shout out. “Get to work Parker, I don’t pay you to stare at the shiny objects.”

“You don’t pay me, Mr. Stark.” Peter chuckled even as he moved forward to start working on their current project.

“That’s what you think,” Tony replied as he came back with the wire cutters in hand, giving the teen an appraising look. “I mean I did build you a suit that is way above anyone’s pay grade, not to mention you got to tinker around with one of my suits. I think that’s payment, don’t you?” Peter shrugged, smirking when he was offered the wire cutters. “Well then, get to work.”

Peter reached out to snip the black wire, pausing when Mr. Stark leaned forward and questioned him in a teasing manner. “You remember the magic words right? Just wanna make sure you don't forget the magic words.”

Peter glared at the smirking man, giving a small sigh he replied. “Spidey out.”

“Initializing protocol: Spidey out.”

“OH COME ON! I didn’t mean now Friday! Mr. Stark-”

Tony laughed at the poor teen when the lights shut down and all the machines quieted at once more. “Great job Parker, you just shut down the lab.” Patting the kid’s back, Tony called out into the darkened room. “Good job Friday.”

Peter sulked, glaring at his mentor who had set him up on purpose before cutting the black wire, even without proper lighting he could see just fine. The red light that began to blink had Peter’s eyes widening. “Umm...Mr. Stark?”

He probably should have waited for the lights to come back on because Peter wasn't so sure that this 'experiment' was going to end all that well either.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Forgot to add, I reply to pretty much every comment but I'm leaving tomorrow on vacation so it might be a few days before I get to comments. XD


End file.
